Cultural competence in sports medicine: Unpacking the gym bag

René Revis Shingles, PhD, AT, ATC, is director and professor in the department of physical education and sport at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant. She received her doctorate from Michigan State University. Her doctoral studies in sport sociology and program design and evaluation provide the theoretical framework for her continued research in cultural competence. Dr. Shingles has presented extensively on cultural competence and diversity and has over 20 years of experience in teaching at the collegiate level.

Dr. Shingles is a member of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association’s (NATA) Ethnic Diversity Advisory Council, serving as chair from 1995 until 2000. She also served on the NATA Education Council Executive Committee from 2004 through 2009. In addition to her athletic training experience, her work with these committees provided firsthand knowledge of diversity and educational issues in athletic training. In 2010, she received the Great Lakes Athletic Trainers’ Association Outstanding Educator Award and the NATA’s Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer Award.

As an athletic trainer and researcher, she has traveled to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Mexico, Aruba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and throughout the Caribbean. Dr. Shingles also served as an athletic trainer for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

She and her husband, Stan, reside in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, where she enjoys spending time with family and friends, reading, and traveling.

There are likely many standard items in your gym bag—workout clothes, deodorant, your mp3 player, and a good pair of socks just to name a few. But did you know that you’re carrying other items around with you every day? Your race and ethnicity, your gender, your class, your sexual orientation, your religious beliefs—you carry these around with you every day, and they impact the way you view the world and other people, whether you are aware of it or not.

To become culturally competent, we need to unpack our gym bags and discover what’s really inside. During this 45-minute presentation, René Revis Shingles leads us through an exploration of what we’re carrying around with us all the time. You’ll learn how the contents of your cultural gym bag impact the way you view yourself and how these traits affect the way you view and treat patients. Please join us as we explore this exciting and sometimes sensitive subject.

The Staying in the Game webinar series will help sports medicine professionals keep their clients in the game, whatever that game might be. Whether you work with elite athletes, weekend warriors, fitness enthusiasts, or the general population, this series is designed to have something for everyone. So join us for these informative sessions that will help your athletes stay in the game and help you stay up to date on the latest information from a variety of health care fields.